Truman said he felt like the sun, moon, stars and all the planets had fallen upon him when FDR died and he became president. He knew none of the details of the Yalta Agreement and did not even know the U.S. was developing the atomic bomb. Within months he had to meet in Potsdam with Churchill and Stalin, the two most knowledgeable, shrewdest and shfitest leaders in the world. Japan had not yet surrendered, the kamikaze planes were sinking our ships and the prospect of invading Japan; home islands was looming. He decided to use the bomb against HIroshima and Nagasaki rather than just issue a warning or allow a demonstraton detonation..

Europe faced the threat of the Soviet union from both without and within Germany, France, and Italy. The Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO, FRG and containment were Truman's response. The Berlin Airlift broke the Soviet blocakde of West Berlin

Truman went to the U.N for authorization to opppose the invasion of South Korea by communist North Korea This venture became a stalemate and a quagmire and NK is still a major a problem today. Truman fired the five star general MacArthur for insubordination to demonstrate that the president outranks a five star general as CIC and that the civilian controls the military and not the other way around.

He ended segregation the military and was faced with the revolt of Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecats.He railed against the Republican Do Nothing Congress and made whistle stop speeches against the smug and elitist Tom Dewey. He displayed the copy of the Chicago Tribune headline in bold face type that Dewey Defeats Truman.

What a failure this inexpereienced senator from MO who spoke with a midwestern twang, wore glasses with heavy lenses, walked briskly with an umbrella, cussed, and chewed out reporters turned out to be. If only we had more inexperienced failures like Truman.